Many telephone subscribers are annoyed at hearing a busy signal when they place a telephone call to a party whose telephone line is busy. One possible reason for this is that the busy signal means that the caller will have to try to place the call again at some later time, usually within minutes (or seconds) of the initial attempt of placing the call to the desired called party. Disadvantageously, it is not unusual for a caller to make numerous attempts at placing a call to the desired called party and heating a busy signal as the result of each such attempt. In fact, it is also not unusual for a caller "to give up" trying to reach the desired party.